


In Sickness and In Health

by DarkJediQueen



Series: Apartment for Rent [6]
Category: Bones (TV), Criminal Minds (US TV), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Hawaii Five-0 (2010), James Bond (Craig movies), MacGyver (TV 2016), NCIS, Stargate SG-1
Genre: All Human AU, Alternate Universe, Established Relationship, M/M, non-canon compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-07-20 05:14:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19986685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkJediQueen/pseuds/DarkJediQueen
Summary: Tony's sick and Spencer cares for him.





	In Sickness and In Health

**Author's Note:**

> **Year** : Modern Day  
>  **Spoilers** : Up Through Everything Current for Each Fandom  
>  **Notes** : None  
>  **Beta** : Grammarly

Spencer stretched a little in bed but stopped when he felt the body in front of him. He frowned until he smelled food on him. It had to be Tony, Spencer smelled the spice mix that Tony used to make the burgers that he sold. The hamburgers that were going out in a little bit for a meal for an early catering for lunch. Tony had napped the afternoon before, along with the rest of the staff that was going to start the catering after dinner rush was over. Spencer was shocked though that Tony had come up to his apartment and not gone to his own.

While they rarely spent a night apart, those nights were always with them together. It never ended with them in bed together if they were not together at bedtime. Spencer traced the small scar on Tony's shoulder that he told Spencer that he had got while being stupid moving something in his apartment by himself. It was believable because of how hard-headed Tony could be, but also the jaggedness of the scar told Spencer that it wasn't something simple that had made it.

Spencer was to awake to laze around in bed for too long, but he wasn't sure how long Tony planned on sleeping. Spencer had to open up Dell of Riven, and then when the rest of the staff got there, he was going to deal with a little paperwork in his office. Derek was going to be at noon to fully take over the running of the shop so Spencer could technically do what he wanted to do after that. Spencer wasn't that upset that Tony was in his bed, he just wished that it was a different day where Spencer could delay his job in the shop. Tony would understand, though.

Pressing a kiss to Tony's shoulder, Spencer slipped out of bed and moved to get ready for the day. He showered the night before, so he didn't have to do that. Styling, his hair had taken the longest. He didn't make himself any coffee so that it didn't wake up Tony with the smell and he penned Tony a note for him to come and visit Spencer at the bookstore when he woke up and was hungry.

"Good morning," Harry said as he was standing at the door to the shop, pastries in hand for the day to sell at the bookstore.

"Morning," Spencer said. He turned when he saw Natalie walking up the stairs. She was the one that was going to be running the coffee stand, which had a great deal of business now that people knew it was open and served excellent coffee at reasonable prices. Spencer pulled out his keys to unlock the door and then turned off the alarm. Natalie and Harry went right for the corner where the coffee stand was. She turned on the dishwasher as soon as she was close and then the espresso machine. The drip coffee machine was next. It was ordinary and straightforward, but the thoughts inside of Spencer were not.

"Need coffee boss?" Natalie asked.

"Yes, please. Triple shot, don't care about anything else."

"Rough night?" Natalie waggled her eyebrows at Spencer with a grin on her lips.

Spencer ignored her innuendo. He had got used to it from his staff and really, he didn't mind it at all. He knew that they cared, that they loved him in a friendly way and only wanted to see him happy. Natalie was one of the newest to join them at the new location, but she had been off of work for two years first with her daughter who was born early then her husband had died in a work accident, and Spencer had kept her job open for her when she wanted to come back. She was one of the hardest workers he had ever employed, and he was glad to have her back. The only position that had actually been open when she was ready was the position of a barista. She had willingly jumped into that and helped cover the register when it was needed. Spencer was going to offer her the position of assistant manager when she had been there another six months. Derek needed the help, and it would be nice to have Derek cover the mornings, and she covered the evenings.

"Here you go," Natalie said as she settled the cup in front of Spencer.

"Thanks." Spencer frowned because he had not even realized that much time has passed. He took a sip to find the milk had been steamed at the kid's temp, which was good. Spencer needed the caffeine in him as soon as possible. He drank a few mouthfuls before he settled it down on the counter as he counted the register to start the morning. He checked on Harry, who was setting up the case for the pastries. Pulling what was left from the day before and putting it on the top shelf as the day olds and there for five for five but only if you bought five. Most everyone did. There was not a lot left and even from across the room, Spencer saw that there were eighteen items. Spencer smiled as Harry settled three onto the tray and offered Natalie one before walking across to Spencer.

Spencer snagged the pecan braid and toasted Harry with it.

"How was the mess this morning?" Spencer asked.

"There wasn't except for a single pan that I think was just missed. They all had to be tired. I washed it and wiped down all of the counters again before I started to cook just in case. I've not heard a word on how the catering is going, but then I don't expect to until everyone comes back. Most of them leave their phones in the catering van."

"Ah," Spencer said. He had never focused too much on the catering aspect of Tony's restaurant mainly because he had never been around too much of it. He was intrigued by caterings, watching the flurry of the kitchen wherever it was happening. Spencer hadn't asked Tony to watch because Tony had not been on a catering that it would have been okay for Spencer to join him on.

The morning flew by for Spencer and Derek took over for him on running the shop and didn't say a word when Spencer took himself to the office and all but blockaded himself into it. Tony hadn't come down, which Spencer was a little shocked about. Tony rarely ever slept that late.

"Hello," Aaron said from behind Spencer as he stared off into space in the office.

Spencer turned around to look at Aaron, who was dressed down for the day in a pair of soft linen pants and a flowy shirt. Spencer cocked an eyebrow at him as he looked him up and down.

"Danny and I are heading to a spa for a day of relaxing with Steve and Seeley. I figured that easy and soft clothes were the best as I have no clue what that man has planned for us."

"Better you than me."

"Well you were invited, but I figured that you would rather just stay here." Aaron stepped closer. "Did he kick you out?"

"Kick me out?" Spencer asked. He was confused about who he was and why he would have kicked Spencer out of anywhere.

"Tony," Aaron hedged, the look on his face saying that he was confused. Spencer probably had a matching look on his face because Aaron's confused looked turned into a deep frown. "Spencer, they kicked Tony out of the catering prep last night before it was done because he was shaky and chilled. He wasn't running a fever, but he was no help to them as he couldn't remember his own recipes for things."

"He's sick?" Spencer reached for his cellphone to find that there was no missed calls or texts from him or anyone else.

"He didn't tell you? He's not in his apartment, so I assumed he was in yours. I didn't invade, but I was coming down to get some coffee when I heard Derek talking about you being in here. I knew you didn't like to get sick, but I didn't think you were the kind to abandon someone when they weren't feeling well."

"No. He was in my bed, but I had to open Dell this morning, and I've not seen him since I got up. He didn't wake when I did so I left him to sleep. I left a note to have him join me for breakfast, but I just assumed he was sleeping late." Spencer turned back to his paperwork and tidied it up and got ready to head up to take care of Tony. Aaron was correct that Spencer didn't like to get sick, but he couldn't leave Tony to fend for himself while in Spencer's apartment or really anywhere. "I'll head up to take care of him."

"He likes tea when he's sick and potato chips."

"That's a weird combination, but the salt probably helps with electrolytes and such in his body." Spencer grabbed his phone and started to type out a grocery list of things that he wanted to have on hand for Tony. He could text it to the shop closest to them, and they would gather it all up. Spencer had been happy when they set that up. They were still working on their website to do the online orders as their first had died a horrible death when young hackers had hit a lot of local places and destroyed them. Q and Mac had made sure that they were caught, handing their IP addresses over to the police when they were tapped to find them having consulted on a few cases like it over the years. Spencer had been shocked to see the cops show up at the shop. He had watched and had been glad when neither of them had been pulled from the shop in cuffs.

"I'll leave you be. If you need anything dropped off, just text and I can do it when we get back. Also please just tell me you need me and I'll leave their asses behind."

"I'm not making you leave a date with Danny." Spencer wasn't shocked about the glare that he got from Aaron. With those being the last holdouts on pairing off, everyone, even Minerva, was being assholes on pushing them together.

"It's not a date. Danny thinks that I need a relaxing day after the last few court days I've had and the ones that are still to come this week."

"The murder case right where your client is being railroaded?" Spencer remembered reading it in the paper. He didn't ask too much about cases from Steve, Aaron, or Draco just to make sure that they didn't feel like they needed to tell him things that he had no right to know.

"Yes. I have one witness left to call, but the last witness that was called by the prosecution ended up doing more for me than them."

"Those questions you asked me?" Spencer had been grilled by Aaron about a few science things.

"Yes. I might need to call you to the stand on the physics behind everything. I have been trying to get someone else, but I've found no one."

"I have a friend. I'll give him a call." Spencer hoped that Charlie would be able to help. It would look better than a former lover of Aaron's taking the stand to help him win a case. "He's a consultant for local FBI, but he'll be good. He likes numbers."

"Thanks." Aaron nodded his head and walked over to press a kiss to Spencer's forehead before he left.

Spencer finished up cleaning up what he was doing and making sure that he had what really needed to be done before he left the office and locked it up. Natalie had no customers, so he ordered a tea with honey in it for Tony. Something herbal but would help him hopefully feel a little better. Spencer also grabbed a croissant that had no flavors in it. Tony didn't like crackers when his stomach was upset, he said the texture was weird, but he liked bread things. Spencer didn't like either when he was sick, so he found it all strange.

The door to Spencer's apartment was still locked, which Tony might have done if he left, but the sound of snoring from the bedroom and then a cough told him that Tony was still indeed holed up in Spencer's bed. Spencer set the croissant and the tea down on the counter before he set his electric kettle up with water from the pitcher on the counter, but he didn't turn it on. He looked at the coffee pot, but coffee would not be suitable for Tony so Spencer pulled out the teas that he liked that had a good bit of caffeine for him and the soft ones that wouldn't upset Tony. He got the larger tea mug out of the cabinet and the sugar down as well.

Spencer walked to his bedroom when he had the kitchen set up how he wanted it to help him get Tony what he would need quicker. Tony was curled in the middle of the bed with all of Spencer's blankets on him, including the one that he had that stretched across the bottom to make sure that if Spencer got cold, he could get warm. Spencer's pillow was missing from where it had been, and Spencer was pretty sure that Tony was wrapped around it. Spencer sighed and walked to the bathroom. He pulled out his plastic box that held all of the cold and sickness over the counter medication that he usually took and hoped that whatever was in there would cover what was wrong with Tony. Pain medication was in a different box bedside it, and all of the prescriptions that Spencer took for allergies and his last round of being sick with something that needed antibiotics but he had needed to change to a different dose were in another that was a shelf up. Aaron found the way that Spencer did things very weird as he just had a shoebox, from a pair of shoes that cost more than one of the Spencer's prized books, that was full of the random pills that Aaron had. Spencer needed to go through them to make sure that nothing was out of date as Aaron didn't pay that close of attention to that.

"Pen?" Tony called out. His throat sounded raw. It sounded even worse than when Tony had spent nearly an hour working Spencer to orgasm twice with just his mouth because Spencer challenged him to.

Spencer grabbed the throat spray and cough drops from the container before he walked into his bedroom. Tony was still mostly under the blankets, his head peeking out from under with the glow from the bathroom reflecting off of his eyes. His eyes looked glassy, and Spencer knew that he felt like shit. Spencer could understand that. He walked over to the bed and pulled the blankets back enough to where he could feel Tony's forehead.

"You left."

"Well, you didn't tell me you were sick when you got into bed with me, and you were pretty deeply asleep when I got up, and you didn't cough. I had to get Dell open, but I'm here now. Do you think you can get a croissant on your tummy?" Spencer slipped into the bed and wasn't shocked when Tony slide over and laid his had on Spencer's thigh. Spencer started to thread his fingers through Tony's short hair. It was slightly more grown out than he usually wore it, but it was the perfect length for Spencer to hold onto during various sex acts, so he figured that Tony was keeping it there for that reason alone.

"Just wanted you but yeah you couldn't have known that. You are here now."

"Shush," Spencer said because Tony's speech was making Spencer's throat hurt in sympathy. Spencer kept on playing with his hair for another few minutes, giving Tony comfort. "Croissant?"

Tony nodded his head and let go of Spencer. Spencer walked quickly to get the tea that he had for Tony as well as the pastry. He then turned the kettle on so that he could make himself a cup of tea. Tony was seated up against the headboard with his arms wrapped around Spencer's pillow. His face was buried in the pillow, and he was coughing. Spencer could understand that, making sure that his whole body didn't ache when he was done. Spencer settled the two items onto the nightstand before he went to get the container of medication so Tony could tell him what was wrong.

"That's...why have I never actually looked inside of that thing. Holy shit," Tony said as he pulled the container closer to him. He laughed, and that caused more coughing, but he picked up each box. Setting some on top before looking at the next. When he was done, he looked at those five that he had set out and found the one that he seemed to want to take. He kept on eyeing another one though. "One has cough suppressant, and I need that, but the other covers more of what is actually wrong with me."

"I have cough medicine that can be taken with this one. Why you don't get that one back out." Spencer found the bottle of cough medicine in the covers and handed it over to Tony.

"You probably have this thing memorized and can reach in and find the one that you want, don't you?"

"As long as someone doesn't rearrange things, yes."

"Aaron?" Tony asked.

"Yes. He thought he was funny until he realized that I took the wrong thing once and couldn't take what I needed for several hours because there were things that you can't take on top of each other like that in them. He felt bad. I just grabbed and popped the pills. It's what I always do."

"That's scary, but I can see now why you don't keep other things in here." Tony picked up the tea and took a sip, sighing and giving a smile as it soothed this throat a little bit.

Spencer saw the cough coming and grabbed the tea so that Tony could wrap is arms around the pillow and settle his heaving chest with the cough. Spencer got out the dosage of pills that Tony would need and set the alarm on his phone for the next dose before checking the cough medicine and seeing that they were to be taken at the same time. He was glad. Tony could get some sleep again before Spencer woke him up for more medication.

When Tony was done coughing, he uncurled and reached for the tea. He took a sip and looked at Spencer. He held out his other hand for the pills and tossed them back before following those with a healthy drink from his tea. He grabbed the croissant next and took a small bite of it so that he could see how it did. Tony was silent as he ate it and finished off the tea before taking the cough medicine when Spencer poured it into the cup that came with it.

"Will you let me cuddle you?" Tony asked after he had swallowed the liquid.

"I will, but I need to make my tea and get you some fresh so you can have something to drink if you need it. Then find a few books." Spencer wondered if the Kindle would be better. He could turn the light mostly off and use the low light of it to read by. It wouldn't disrupt Tony hopefully.

"Hurry back."

"I will." Spencer leaned over and kissed Tony's forehead. Feeling the fever there. This should freak him out. Getting sick but Spencer remembered growing up wishing that his mother could cuddle him and give him attention when he was sick and hated that she didn't because she was gone in her own little world. He had left Aaron to fend for himself after making sure that Aaron had what he needed. Aaron had been a little hurt, but it had come out in the aftermath that getting sick freaked Spencer out.

Spencer made himself concentrate on the fact that he would have already been exposed enough to get sick if he was going to just by sleeping in bed with Tony that night for longer than it seemed he thought he had been sleeping in bed with him. Spencer made his tea, Tony's tea, and grabbed a few things for snacks for himself before finding his Kindle in the mess that was his desk at the moment. He had a lot of bookstore paperwork spread across the top of the desk as he had been looking for a single sheet of paper that was needed to mail off that should have not been needed, but someone at the city building was carrying a stick in their asses.

Tony was lying in bed, his arms still wrapped around Spencer's pillow and he looked pitiful, but it didn't scare Spencer anymore. He just felt the need to take care of him. Spencer settled both cups of tea on the nightstand and threw away the cup that Tony had been using in the trash in the bathroom. He walked back and put up the medicine box and kept the other out. He washed out the little cup for the cough medicine. He was dressed in good clothes, so he slipped into his closet and changed into something that was made for laying around in bed. He shut off that light and the room was still near dark enough that Spencer wouldn't know where he was going if he didn't have his room memorized. He turned his touch lamp on Tony's side of the bed onto it's lowest setting and settled himself in bed. Tony moved to where he was lying with his head on Spencer's thigh and his arm thrown over his legs. Spencer's pillow was braced against his legs.

Spencer found it kind of cute that Tony wanted to still cuddle with his pillow even though he had Spencer now.

"It's not enough light for you to read," Tony protested, his eyes were still open.

"I have my Kindle, and I'll make sure I have it bright enough to be able to read it. I'll be fine."

Tony didn't say anything, but he did close his eyes finally and seem to start to fall asleep. Spencer turned on the Kindle and set it up to where he could read one-handed on it. He settled his other on Tony's head and started to play with his scalp. It was something that would hopefully help him sleep.

After an hour, Spencer started to feel restless, so he grabbed his tablet from the drawer where he had slipped it and checked the battery. It needed charged, so he plugged it in and started to read on his Kindle again. He never once moved and woke up Tony, but after another hour of reading, Tony began to get restless, and his breathing changed. Spencer set aside his Kindle and frowned down at his lover. Tony opened his eyes with a gasp and then cough for nearly a full minute. Spencer couldn't do much except for sit there and rub at Tony's back as he moved to cough up something that wasn't there. There was a wet rattling sound during the cough like it had already settled down into Tony's chest.

"Hey," Spencer said. He knew that it was two hours before Tony could take anything else, but it might not be a simple little cold that was being passed around with how quickly it settled into Tony's chest. "What do you need?"

Tony shook his head and sat up in bed. He leaned over, gripping Spencer's pillow again really tight. Spencer kept on rubbing Tony's back to let him know that he wasn't alone and that Spencer was here, even if he had no clue what he was doing. He didn't even know if Tony wanted him to be rubbing his back. Spencer nearly lifted his hand off, worried that Tony was enduring it because he thought it was doing something for Spencer. At the last second, though, Spencer didn't. Tony was good at telling Spencer what he liked and didn't. If he didn't like the hand on his back, he would tell Spencer that.

"I think that I need to go to the clinic," Tony said.

"Okay, I can take you." Spencer tried to figure out what clinic Tony was talking about. Then he remembered that Tony had mentioned his doctor setting up a little clinic that was for the weekend and after-hours cases where a doctor from the practice and nurses would come in to treat emergent cases that didn't need to go to the ER but didn't want to go to a quick care clinic either.

Tony hated the quick care clinics around the city. He trusted his doctor. He didn't trust random stranger doctors. Though the fact that his doctor's name was Brad Pitt freaked Spencer out a little bit. He was knowledgeable enough about current events to know that Brad Pitt was the name of a big actor. Spencer probably couldn't pick him out of a lineup at all.

"You don't-" Tony stopped to cough. His body was shaking hard from the exertion.

Spencer leaned over to pull Tony back into his arms, holding both Tony and the pillow tightly to where Tony couldn't go anywhere. Tony relaxed back into Spencer when the coughs subsided. Spencer felt bad for Tony. Tony hated being sick as much as Spencer did. It was so stupid that the body got ill and stopped them from doing what they needed to do.

Tony's phone went off with a series of three texts, but he didn't move out of Spencer's arms to actually move to answer it. Instead, he just stayed there. So Spencer reached out with an arm and grabbed the phone to look at the texts. Tony had given Spencer the number to unlock it one day when Spencer had been on the couch beside his cellphone with his broken leg propped up after nearly falling on his ass. Tony had stuck him on the couch and made him not get up. Tony's hands had been covered in something, Spencer couldn't remember that part of it. So Spencer had answered the texts from Harry about a few things that he had been running that day as Tony was off after being gone for a long while with the shooting of the TV show he had been doing.

Spencer looked at the texts from three of Tony's upper staff telling him that they had everything under control and that he was not to come back to work until he was done being sick. Spencer knew that he was unlikely that Tony wouldn't try and slip into the kitchen to do something so Spencer figured that to keep Tony out of there until he got better Spencer would have to be the one to keep him entertained. He texted Harry from Tony's phone and asked him to bring Tony's paperwork for the restaurant up so that Tony could work on it a little here and there when he felt like it.

Harry was the most sensible of Tony's staff and at least understood that just because one was sick that not everyone could just lay around and not do anything. Tony liked reading, but there was only so much that he could do of it if one was used to being very active, and Tony was usually very busy. He would need something to keep him occupied while he was getting better. It would help him settle his mind to give it something to do, which was good, Spencer thought. Harry sent back a text promising to bring something up at a later time once he had breakfast and lunch done for the day.

"I think that you taking me would be good. I don't want to take a cab, and anything else would be worse. I can't drive. This hit me quickly."

"Yes, it did hit you quick, but that doesn't mean anything. You could have been fighting it off well enough and then stressed yourself too much with the catering, so it just hit you harder and quicker. Tell me where we are going, and I'll gladly drive you." Spencer looked at his clothes and knew that he needed to change but didn't want to dress up like he usually did. He wasn't the one getting seen by he didn't want to be uncomfortable at all. He also didn't want to get anything on his good clothes. Tony seemed like he had been near gagging a few times during his coughing and Spencer had done that before so he understood what could happen.

Tony called into the office to get a doctor, and his staff to meet him at the office, but it seemed that someone else was already there with something else. Spencer didn't hear it all, but he listened with one ear to make sure that he got to Tony in time if he started to cough too much again. Spencer brought his Kindle with him so that he could read. Tony didn't want to take anything with him except for a bottle of water to make sure that he could give a urine sample if needed. Spencer didn't figure that the doctor would want one, but he wasn't going to say anything like that to Tony.

The drive to the suite of doctor's offices that were in the same practice was very short. Spencer liked the doctor he had found when he had arrived in the area, but he knew that he was going to be retiring and so far the other doctor with him, Spencer really didn't like and didn't want to have to see him once a year for his appointment.

The waiting room was empty, which kind of shocked Spencer, but he knew it was technically not office hours. A nurse walked up to the counter, and just as she did, Tony started to cough so hard that Spencer heard the gag before Tony could even realize he was about to throw up. The nurse seemed ready for it and had a trash can up on the counter just as Tony gagged worse and couldn't stop what was happening next.

Spencer cringed and was glad that he wasn't one of those ones that threw up when others around him threw up. His mother had been one, and it had made it hard for her to care for him when he was sick when she was lucid enough to do it.

"Okay, Tony, you are coming straight back. We can take care of the paperwork later." She reached over and pressed a button, and Spencer heard the door unlock to the right side. Spencer slipped an arm under Tony's to help him get up and moving. It was interesting to practically carry him. Tony had slept for awhile, but it seemed the coughing was taking everything out of him, which Spencer could understand. He followed the nurse to a room where Tony was settled down on a couch instead of one of the typical exam tables, and then she left.

A man entered the room a few minutes later with a tablet in his hand. He smiled at Tony, giving him a fond look. Spencer figured it was Doctor Pitt.

"Tony, is this your Spencer?" Doctor Pitt asked.

"Yes," Tony said, his voice was rough from the coughing.

"Well, that is not good. So we need to get a good look at your chest. I'll have my nurses get you through all of the machines I need. So, down to skivvies. I have a pair of sweatpants so that your modesty is covered." Doctor Pitt looked down and laughed when he saw that Tony was already in a pair of sleep pants and just a simple T-shirt. There was nothing metal on him. Spencer watched as Doctor Pitt typed out a few things on the tablet before he stood up and held out his hand to Spencer. "Doctor Reid, yes?"

"Yes, it's good to meet you, Doctor Pitt."

"Please call me Brad. Tony does. You'll need to take him down to the third door on the right. It's the hub for all of the machines he'll need to go through. Some of very non-invasive, checking lung capacity and such but also the X-ray machine. You'll have some swabs done as well as a test of your spittle when you cough the next time. I want to see what kind of infection you have going on if you do."

It was nearly two hours to wait to get the results for everything, but Spencer figured it was well worth it. Tony had taken a nap while they waited on the throat culture as well as the spittle culture for the testing. The facility was well covered by having nearly every single thing on hand that they would need to diagnose anything and everything.

"Is he asleep?" Brad said.

"Yes, the cough medicine that you gave him knocked him out." Spencer looked down at Tony, hearing the rattle but it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been.

"Tony talked to me when I was helping with a few of the tests that I'm allowed to give you medical history and why I am going through all of this. So what has Tony told you about college?"

"That he got hurt and chose to do cooking instead of sports."

"I was the one that injured him. I turned to medicine and then when Tony got sick a few years ago, I became his doctor on file. He got sick with a version of the plague that was being experimented on by a local lab to try and wipe it out. Someone smuggled some out samples to sell on the highest market. I treated him for it, and it's why I'm very meticulous about making sure that he's actually fine. His lungs are scarred, so I worry about him getting sick like this. You were doing good trying to treat it, but yeah he's going to need a stronger cough suppressant that also helps him shake loose what's in his chest. He's going to be down, and he's not going to like it."

"I'll handle keeping him entertained. So no smoke and no severe humidity or grease in the air."

"Yes."

"I was down with a severe chest infection once. I was down for nearly a week in bed. I was able to manage the book store I own by remote and just work on paperwork when I needed to do when I could. One of his staff is getting things ready, so he can do the paperwork and that kind of stuff from home. I can settle him into my shop and help people or read to kids. I'll keep him busy so that he can rest and get better but not go insane."

"Good. Good. I have the medications that he needs, enough to get him through today and the prescriptions will be faxed over to his favorite drug store, and then you can pick them up tomorrow or so. He'll have enough to do him today with the samples I am giving so you don't have to worry about anything but taking care of him."

"Which will be a job on its own. He took care of me, though recently."

"Yes, he called and made sure that he was taking good care of you. You've been good for him. Getting him out of the restaurant more, helping to lower his stress. His last physical was excellent. I was about to order him to take two days off a week. He needed something that wasn't the restaurant."

Spencer didn't say anything on that as he had been told the same thing but by Derek. That Spencer had been better, looked better, and acted better. Tony gave Spencer something that wasn't work to focus on. He gave Spencer happiness. Spencer hadn't been unhappy with his life before. He had not thought he was unhappy before Tony. He had not thought he was lonely. Tony had proved that he was wrong but not wrong enough he ever would have known it unless Tony had entered his life. Spencer never wanted to go back. He never wanted to go back to the life that he had before.

* * *

Spencer heard the sounds of Tony waking up. He walked over to the oven to grab the plate of food he had stuck in there on warm. He grabbed it out and found the juice and water in the fridge for Tony. Spencer had taken the week off of work, stepping up Natalie quicker to assistant manager to help Derek run the place while Spencer was gone.

Tony came shuffling out a few minutes later, dressed in a thick robe. Spencer had kept his apartment at a slightly higher than average temperature, but still Tony was cold all of the time. Spencer was okay with it. Tony had invaded his apartment, and Spencer had not had an issue with it so far. In fact, Spencer was enjoying it. He was caught up on paperwork, had read a great deal of ARC books that he found he wanted to stock in the store, if they were good, as well as took care of a whole bunch of other things around his apartment that he had been putting off to spend time with Tony. Spencer didn't mind the whole spending time with Tony thing, but he hadn't realized that he had been putting off a few things to spend time with him. Spencer smiled at Tony as he settled in at the island in the spot that had fast been becoming his spot.

There were a lot of places and things inside of the apartment that was Tony's. The second canister of coffee that was Tony's favorite blend even though at the moment he still wasn't allowed to drink coffee yet. There was the pillow that had been Spencer's from his bed that now lived on the couch so Tony could cuddle it when he was coughing. It had been swapped out when the first had lost Spencer's smell. Spencer still had no clue how Tony was smelling that given his issues, but Spencer wasn't fighting that at all. If it made Tony feel better, then he was all for that.

"You said you might have to go into work today?" Tony asked as he picked up his fork to dig into the food. He smiled at the potatoes as he chewed them. Tony had come to like Spencer's breakfast food.

Spencer hadn't admitted that it was an easy meal to make when he was in university on a hot plate in his dorm that he had made a skillet for. It's why it was his favorite meal to make at any point during the day. Breakfast for dinner was okay with Spencer at any point in time.

"I believe so, yes. We have not had the opening visit from Steritech on the coffee shop, and they hit the one by my old place, and usually, they hit an area at the same time. It's not like the health department where they run everyone, not every place has someone like Steritech come in and look at how things are run. It's a level of care that not everyone goes to the lengths that they do."

Tony was smiling, and Spencer frowned a little then smiled as well.

"You use them as well don't you?"

"Yes. Harry's already heard the rumor they are around the area, so he's made sure that everything is going well. I have a prep fridge that he's taken offline because there is a tear in the seal and the refrigeration guys have not come out yet to fix it. That's the only violation that Harry can see other than making sure that things are labeled when we open them instead of at the close of business like we normally do. I can see why they want things labeled, but we go through so much during a service than anything that we prep or open that day gets labeled at the end of the day."

"Well you are not allowed in there at all today if we think that Steritech is going to hit," Spencer said. He pointed his coffee cup at Tony, who just nodded his head.

"So what are your plans for today?" Tony asked.

"Other than checking in on work when Steritech shows up nothing really. I have a new stack of books I was going to read through." Spencer wasn't quite going a little stir crazy, but Aaron had pulled him out for a walk the day before, and so he was a little more settled than he had been the day before.

"It's not muggy out," Tony said as he worked on finishing off his eggs. He picked up the pepper and added a little to his potatoes. Tony liked more pepper on them than Spence, so they used less when cooking, and Tony added more at the table.

"No, it's not muggy out." Spencer wondered what Tony wanted. If it was muggy out, he wasn't allowed out as his lungs weren't going to do well on taking it. Spencer had been keeping a very close report on the weather because of that.

"The park isn't too far."

"No, it's not." Spencer narrowed his eyes at Tony. He really hoped that Tony didn't want to go and play a pick-up game of basketball with people in the area.

"We could have my staff make us a picnic lunch, and I can relax and read, and you can read as well. Even if Steritech comes, you can easily slip over to take care of it and then come back for me when you are done. It won't take him long to go through you. He'll hit me before or after I would say since we are in the same building. It doesn't make sense for him to do anything but that."

"You need to get out and about don't you?"

"Yes, please. It doesn't say that it's going to be a bad day outside so yes, I feel like a caged animal and I'm hoping that getting some warm sun will help me knock off this cold chill that I have. It should. I really hope that it does."

"Still dress warm, layers you can strip off."

Tony waggled his eyebrows at Spencer, making him laugh. Spencer looked for something to throw at him and found nothing that he felt like he could throw at him, so he didn't. Tony was looking a lot brighter eyed that morning.

"It's hours until that though, even with you waking up late," Spencer said as a way of covering his inability to do what he wanted.

"Yes, well you have that documentary that you've wanted to watch but haven't because you are afraid that I'll get bored. I figure we can cuddle on the couch and watch it. If I fall asleep, I fall asleep." Tony worked on finishing off his breakfast before he took the pills that Spencer had already laid out for him. There was a lot of weird timing with Tony's pills, so Spencer kept a very close eye on them. He didn't think that Tony would abuse them, but with not wanting to go into the hospital, Spencer didn't want him missing a dose when he really needed it.

Tony had taken well to Spencer's mothering, which was strange as it felt strange for Spencer to do it much less Tony not even fighting it at all. Spencer had not taken the mothering well when he had been laid up with a broken leg. He had been better at it from Tony and Aaron, but the others had been hit and miss.

"I don't...I'm usually very cranky when I'm sick, but you don't mother me too much."

Spencer raised an eyebrow at Tony's words, wondering if Tony was a telepath when he was sick or Spencer had said the words out loud.

"I could see your thoughts wandering a little, and they have been doing it for a while now. Aaron also told me that you are acting very out of character for when people get sick." Tony picked up his glass of juice and drained it. Spencer nodded his head toward the fridge, but Tony waved him off. "I've never had anyone take care of me like this before. It's strange, but it feels right. I enjoy spending time with you when I'm healthy, but this is...you don't expect me to be anything but what I am, a sick person who wants to cuddle more than he probably should."

"I've never taken care of anyone really. I was so horrible at it with Aaron one time. It seemed like I was trying to be something more than what we were. With you, it feels right." Spencer reached down for his cup of coffee and picked it up to take a sip to cover having to speak again. He wasn't sure where his thoughts were going to go if he kept on talking. It still seemed way too early for words, but he felt them.

"I love you too, you know," Tony said.

Spencer looked up at him and frowned. He knew that he had not said that, not those exact words. He tried to go over the whole of the conversation in his head to figure out where Tony got the idea that Spencer loved him. He found nothing, trying to go back even further. Spencer jumped when he felt hands on his cheeks. He let his eyes focus on Tony in front of him. Tony was looking at him with a strange look on his face.

"I didn't-" Spencer stopped when Tony raised his eyebrow.

"You do realize that the first day you had to go and sign for an order and you left Aaron with me that he read me the riot act on the fact of what this meant right? That you hadn't fought it at all when you did with him. You don't just take care of sick people. We've both been dancing around the feeling that we have, the knowledge that we both care for each other more than friends and even just simple people who are dating."

Spencer looked at Tony's eyes, looking past the dullness that still lived in them from being sick and he saw the conviction in his words.

"I do love you," Spencer said, giving voice to what he was feeling but had been scared of saying first.

"I know. I've known for a while. We are both two messed up people who don't do well with admitting to things first. I just...you've cared for me more than anyone else ever has. I wanted you to know how I feel, and I felt it before this. It's not some strange thing where I think I love you because we are in so close of quarters."

"I know you would never say it for that reason alone," Spencer said.

"So let's spend the morning cuddling, and I'll have Harry work up that picnic basket we do around Valentine's Day for couples to take to the park and settle in for a date. Then when we both start to get hungry, we can head out and get it before heading to the park. We can stay at the park as long as you think I can handle and then come back and cuddle on the couch more and watch a movie of my choosing. How does that sound for the day?"

"Sure." Spencer hoped that Tony didn't want to talk that much because Spencer's head was swirling with the words that they had said to each other. He did not regret them, but he had never said them to anyone before, and that was making him feel discombobulated.

"I'll shower before we head to the park, cool water, so it doesn't get too steamy," Tony said as he picked up his plate to put it in the sink. He ran some water onto it and left it to sit there. Spencer didn't mind him doing that, but he didn't want him washing dishes with the steam that would be needed to do it. They had found a happy medium on the way that they did things. Tony washed his clothes, but Spencer was the one to fold them as Tony standing for that length of time made him weak.

"That sounds good. Maybe tomorrow you'll feel like spending some time at home? Not that I want to get rid of you, but you have to miss your bed. We can move to there for a few days, get you a little more comfortable for the days you will start to feel better but don't have as much to do here."

"That sounds good. You can bring up a basket of books and swap them out easily."

"I'm actually nearly caught up on everything that I wanted to read, so I think that I'll leave you at the park for a little bit and hit that little used book shop down the block."

"That sounds good. You can have them drop off some books and bring a few back with you to the park."

"That's what I was thinking." Spencer looked in Tony's eyes and smiled at him before leaning in for a kiss on the lips. It was the first time that Spencer had done it since Tony had got sick. While Spencer knew that Tony wasn't contagious he was just sickly enough that kissing wasn't something that Spencer felt he would feel like doing. Spencer kept the kiss quick, but Tony made a humming noise that told Spencer that he enjoyed it.

"We can revisit that at the park," Tony said with a little blush on his cheeks that said he was feeling better.

"That sounds like an excellent plan," Spencer said. He brushed his nose on Tony's. "Go ahead into the living room, and we can get ready to watch a documentary on physics."

"You got a date," Tony said with a grin.

# The End

**Author's Note:**

> I write fanfiction for fun. It's a hobby and a stress relief. I refuse to stress over my writing. What you see is what you get. Errors, plot holes, and all. Thank you for reading my story!
> 
> I can be found on MeWe [here](https://mewe.com/i/beccaqueen1), join me there and we can discuss my fics and whatnot.


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